Textiles are fundamental to human culture and have been made and used by humans for thousands of years. The earliest textiles were—and continue to be—woven from natural fibers such as flax, wool, silk, and cotton. More recently, textile fibers, yarns and fabrics also have been industrially produced from polymers, such as polyester, nylon olefins, other thermoplastic polymers, and combinations thereof. Many modern polymers can be made into an almost endless variety of shapes and products that are attractive, durable, and water-resistant. In many cases these synthetic fibers or yarns (depending upon the desired technique and end product) can be blended with natural fibers to obtain end products with desired features of both natural and synthetic materials.
Although durability and water-resistance are desirable, these same properties can lead to secondary environmental problems. Textiles produced from polymeric fibers do not naturally biodegrade in the same manner as natural fibers such as cotton and wool, and can remain in landfills and water (e.g., lakes, oceans) for hundreds of years or more. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, almost 44 million pounds of synthetic (polymeric) textiles go to landfills on a daily basis. In addition, a large portion of the microfibers that are released from garments during the laundry wash cycle get caught in waste water treatment plant sludge. The sludge is eventually turned out as biosolids that are sent to landfill or used as fertilizer. These polymeric microfibers then accumulate in soil or other ground environments, and may even become mobile, eventually making their way from terrestrial to aquatic environments. According to some estimates, around half a million tons of plastic microfibers resulting from the washing of textiles are estimated to be released into the ocean on an annual basis. Certain high surface area microfibers can absorb large toxin loads and resemble microscopic plankton, thereby ending up bio accumulated in the food chain by several orders of magnitude. In turn, because humans typically consume top predator species, such microfiber pollution may negatively affect human health.
As additional issues, items such as carpet and upholstery (both residential and commercial) are bulky relative to garments, and typically incorporate larger, bulkier yarns, and thus can occupy significant landfill space.
In the non-woven context, the now ubiquitous “wipes” of all types (typically a non-woven sheet or several ply sheet) likewise take up significant space, and can also have a tendency, even when considered “flushable,” to clog municipal sewage systems, particularly given the increasing use of low volume, low flow commodes.
In view of these environmental problems, the creation of biodegradable polymers has been the subject of intense academic and industrial interest. These include the following examples, which are representative rather than comprehensive.
Shah et al. in “Microbial degradation of aliphatic and aliphatic-aromatic co-polyesters,” Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol (2014) 98:3437-3447 has reviewed the literature concerning the degradation of the polyesters and has remarked that “most of the biodegradable plastics are polyesters with potentially hydrolysable ester bonds, and these are susceptible to hydrolysis by depolymerases;” and that the aliphatic polyesters degrade easily as compared to aromatic esters due to their flexible polymer chain. Some polyesters, such as PET, are not biodegradable as that term is used in the invention described herein.

Numerous patents have described biodegradable polymeric compositions. For example, in WO 2016/079724 to Rhodia Poliamida polyamide compositions are modified in order to produce biodegradable polyamide fibers. In this patent, the biodegradation rate is measured according to the ASTM D5511 testing standard. On pages 8-9, prior art approaches to biodegradation are discussed including: photo-degradation, prodegradant additives such as transition metal salts, and biodegradable polymers that rapidly degrade leaving behind a porous structure having a high interfacial area and low structural strength; these biodegradable polymers 10 are listed as including starch-based polymers, polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, polybutylene succinate, polybutylene terephthalate-coadipate, and several others; however, the patent application states that “unfortunately, higher amounts are required to render the polymer biodegradable, compatibilizing and plasticizing additives are also needed.” As exemplary biodegradation agents, this patent refers to US Published Patent Application No. 2008/0103232 15 to Lake et al. The biodegradation agent is advantageously a masterbatch including at least six additives: (1) chemo attractant or chemo taxis compound; (2) glutaric acid; (3) carboxylic acid with a chain length of from 5-18 carbons; (4) biodegradable polymer; (5) carrier resin; and (6) swelling agent. The inventive example made polyamide fiber by melt-spinning using 2% of masterbatch of the commercially available biodegradation agent Eco-One®. The resulting fibers were tested via the ASTM D5511 standard and were found to degrade 13.9% or 15.5% after 300 days. The fibers without biodegradation agent degraded 2.2 and 2.3% under the same ASTM D5511 testing.
LaPray et al. in US 2018/0100060 produce biodegradable articles such as a film, bag, bottle, cap, sheet, box or other container, plate or the like that are made from a blend of a polymer with a carbohydrate-based polymer. The biodegradability is tested according to established standards such as ASTM D-5511 and ASTM D-6691 (simulated marine conditions).
Tokiwa et al. describe biodegradable resin compositions comprising a biodegradable resin and a mannan (polysaccharide) digestion product. Tokiwa et al. list biodegradable mannan digestion products include various mannooligosaccharrides.
Bastioli et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 30 8,466,237 describes a biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyester made from 51 to 37% of an aliphatic acid comprising at least 50% brassylic acid (1,11-undecanedicarboxylic acid) and 49 to 63% of an aromatic carboxylic acid. The biodegradable polymer can be additionally modified by the addition of starch or polybutylene succinate and copolymerization with lactic acid or polycaprolactone.
Lake et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 9,382,416 describe a biodegradable additive for polymeric material comprising a chemo attractant compound, a glutaric acid, a 5 carboxylic acid, and a swelling agent. Furanone compounds are discussed as attractants for bacteria.
Wnuk et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,467 describes a biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer containing a second biodegradable polymer such as polycaprolactone with examples of cast and blown films.
A variety of biodegradable formulations are known, typically outside the field of textiles that do not address the issue of launderability, some of which may utilize calcium carbonate. For example, Yoshikawa et al. in US Published Patent Application No. 2013/0288322, Jeong et al. in WO/2005/017015, Tashiro et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 9,617,462, and Whitehouse, in US Patent Application 2007/0259584.
Despite these intensive efforts, there remains a need for novel methods and materials that provide synthetic textiles that are durable and water-resistant but that degrade in waste water treatment anaerobic digesters, landfill conditions and marine environments. Thus, it would be beneficial to create synthetic textiles that maintain their desirable properties but that also degrade more rapidly than conventional synthetic textile materials during waste water treatment, in anaerobic digesters, in landfill conditions, and in marine environments.